Tour de Romandie - Race Overview

ORICA-GreenEDGE leave Romandie having greatly exceeded the expectations Sport Director Neil Stephens outlined for the squad at the outset of the Swiss tour. Whilst he had hoped the team would make their mark on the six day race, Stephens wasn’t expecting big results from the group given the objectives that had come before and the big goals still ahead. His squad surprised. Michael Albasini won stages one, two and four, three of the four road stages on offer, and spent one day in the yellow race leader’s jersey.

“I said it would be nice if our presences was felt, didn’t I? Imagine that. Well, we accomplished that, didn’t we? Taking a stage win on the first road stage was unbelievable. The second road stage was even better. The good thing about that one was the strong collective effort. The third road stage was all Michael. He put all the effort in for that one. It was a fantastic week for the team in Switzerland.

“The only downside – and it’s hard to have a downside when you win three stages out of a six day race – is that it would have been nice to have been part of the general classification,” said Stephens. “It would have been a good test to be up there, but it wasn’t to be. The three stage wins more than compensate for that.” - Sport Director Neil Stephens